Modern web IRC client designed for self-hosting
Website
•
Docs
•
Demo
## Overview
- **Modern features brought to IRC.** Push notifications, link previews, new message markers, and more bring IRC to the 21st century.
- **Always connected.** Remains connected to IRC servers while you are offline.
- **Cross platform.** It doesn't matter what OS you use, it just works wherever Node.js runs.
- **Responsive interface.** The client works smoothly on every desktop, smartphone and tablet.
- **Synchronized experience.** Always resume where you left off no matter what device.
To learn more about configuration, usage and features of The Lounge, take a look at [the website](https://thelounge.chat).
The Lounge is the official and community-managed fork of [Shout](https://github.com/erming/shout), by [Mattias Erming](https://github.com/erming).
## Installation and usage
The Lounge requires [Node.js](https://nodejs.org/) v8 or more recent.
[Yarn package manager](https://yarnpkg.com/) is also recommended.
If you want to install with npm, `--unsafe-perm` is required for a correct install.
### Running stable releases using Yarn (recommended)
Run this in a terminal to install (or upgrade) the latest stable release from
[npm registry](https://www.npmjs.com/):
```sh
yarn global add thelounge
```
If you already have The Lounge installed globally, use the following command to update it:
```sh
yarn global upgrade thelounge
```
When installation is complete, run:
```sh
thelounge start
```
For more information, read the [usage documentation](https://thelounge.chat/docs/usage) or run:
```sh
thelounge --help
```
### Running from source
The following commands install and run the development version of The Lounge:
```sh
git clone https://github.com/thelounge/thelounge.git
cd thelounge
yarn install
NODE_ENV=production yarn build
yarn start
```
When installed like this, `thelounge` executable is not created. Use `node index ` to run commands.
⚠️ While it is the most recent codebase, this is not production-ready! Run at
your own risk. It is also not recommended to run this as root.
## Development setup
Simply follow the instructions to run The Lounge from source above, on your own
fork.
Before submitting any change, make sure to:
- Read the [Contributing instructions](https://github.com/thelounge/thelounge/blob/master/.github/CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing)
- Run `yarn test` to execute linters and test suite
- Run `yarn build` if you change or add anything in `client/js` or `client/views`
- `yarn dev` can be used to start The Lounge and watch for any file changes in the client folder